chortle
/ˈt͡ʃɔɹtəl/ noun, verb
Forms chortles chortling chortled
- noun A joyful, somewhat muffled laugh, rather like a snorting chuckle. “He frequently interrupted himself with chortles while he told us his favorite joke.”
- noun A similar sounding vocalisation of various birds.
- verb (intransitive) To laugh with a chortle or chortles. “The old fellow chortled as he recalled his youthful adventures.”
Synonyms
Etymology
Perhaps a blend of chuckle + snort. Coined by Lewis Carroll in his poem Jabberwocky, completed in 1855 but only introduced to the public in his 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass.
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “chortle”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details